Regular readers may remember that last month we took a detailed look at Gogoro’s impressive electric Smartscooter over it Taiwan. While last month’s article served as a sort of introduction to Gogoro’s unique smart technology concept, I realise that many of you will also be interested in exploring the more technical aspects of the Smartscooter, which believe me, are well worth exploring.
Clever Motor
At the heart of things, Gogoro has equipped the Smartscooter with a drive-by-wire, liquid cooled, G1 motor, which Gogoro claims is capable of sending 8.6 horsepower at 3250rpm to the rear wheel. The top speed is claimed to be around 60mph and the Smartscooter will do 0-30mph in less than 4.2 seconds. While these figures aren’t exactly Suzuki Hayabusa spec, the Gogoro is still plenty quick enough for zipping around town. Interestingly, the drive belts are full race-spec carbon composite beauties, supplied by Gates. We certainly don’t expect these to be a weak point in the design!
Aero Frame
Now, it’s obviously very important for any scooter to be as light weight as possible, and this particular scooter is no different. For the Smartscooter, Gogoro has developed a special all-aluminium monocoque ‘Aero Frame’ chassis to hold everything together, and to keep things nice and rigid, while placing as little strain on the motor as possible.
As you cast your gaze over to the suspension side of things, you’ll notice that at the front, the Smartscooter incorporates an inverted single-piston, single-arm unit, whereas an adjustable multi-link system fits in snugly at the rear, which is actually adjustable on the top-spec Gogoro Plus model. Stopping power is provided by way of a dual-piston calliper at the front and a single-piston variant at the rear, while disc sizes are 205mm and 162mm respectively. The Smartscooter comes equipped with 12-inch aluminium wheels, wrapped in dual-compound Maxxis rubber, which has been designed with a soft outer-tyre compound to allow for high grip when leaning into corners, but also features a harder centre-tyre compound to maximise energy efficiency when travelling in a straight line.
“Next-Gen”
Earlier in this article, we took a look at the Smartscooter’s performance specs, and found them to be a little, well, underwhelming. Speed, however, is not what this scooter is about. Oh no, instead it’s about creating a “next-gen” riding experience, packed full of “next-gen” technologies designed to make ownership as smooth and care free as possible. At the heart of this smart technology are the two batteries. Developed jointly between Gogoro and Panasonic; these ingenious batteries log all manner of details about the scooter, and indeed the rider. From average speeds and battery consumption statistics to automated service interval tracking and error logging. Not only do they record this data, they will also upload it to the Gogoro network system upon plugging in to charge at a GoStation. In theory, this really does take a lot of hassle out of ownership, since pretty much everything is managed on your behalf; all you have to do is ride, charge, and follow the prompts for servicing (which is taken care of at your local Gogoro “high-street” store). Gogoro also claims the batteries provide enough juice to run for up to 60 miles before you would need to visit your nearest GoStation, where you can almost instantaneously swap the batteries out for a fresh pair. The new batteries are released 6 seconds after inserting your used ones, and so you should be good to go in less than a minute. To put that into some sort of perspective, it’s a fair bit quicker than filling up any conventionally fuelled machine at your local petrol station!
All this sounds pretty high-tech and convenient, but the Smartscooter has yet more tricks up its sleeve. The Smartscooter can relay lots of this useful information it’s collected back to you, via your smart phone. Download the Gogoro app, and you’ll be able to connect to your scooter via an iQ System with Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. Once connected, you can do a whole host of things, such as look up your nearest GoStation, manage ride modes and customise performance settings. The app will also allow you to remotely open the scooter’s storage compartment, set different dash lighting colours, as well as control the onboard LED brightness levels, to conserve energy. The app even awards riders with a variety of Gogoro “badges” for achieving certain milestones, such as a new top-speed, or first battery swap etc.
Check out our previous introductory article for more information on Gogoro’s futuristic Smartscooter!
